After wife dies at PGI, man kills self; son lands in orphanage

Three and a half hours after his wife succumbed to lung cancer at the PGIMER here on Thursday morning, Ludhiana resident Ashwini Kumar, along with their 10-year-old son Ashu, walked along the railway line for nearly two kilometres and then jumped to death in front of a train around 10am, pushing his son aside.

Three and a half hours after his wife succumbed to lung cancer at the PGIMER here on Thursday morning, Ludhiana resident Ashwini Kumar, along with their 10-year-old son Ashu, walked along the railway line for nearly two kilometres and then jumped to death in front of a train around 10am, pushing his son aside.

The boy was wailing incessantly when the railway police reached the spot and took the boy in its safe custody, while sending the mutilated body of the father for post-mortem to General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula.

Now, the boy is left distressed at the railway police station, Chandigarh, as no one had yet come forward either to claim his parents' bodies or take his custody. The family belongs to Maharashtra, Harnek Singh, investigating officer of the case, said the man worked at a hosiery factory in Ludhiana, and the police had called a colleague to take custody of the bodies as well as the boy, but he refused. "We have contacted the Ludhiana police to find out if the family had any local relative or any other known person to whom we can hand over the bodies and the boy," he told HT. Harnek said the family had a house in Shakti Nagar locality of Ludhiana.

The police also called the boy's maternal uncle who lives in Bir district in Maharashtra. "He has told the police that he would reach Chandigarh from Maharashtra; but if he does not turn up in the next 72 hours, the police would hand over the bodies to a local NGO for cremation," said Harnek. While the woman's body is at present lying at the mortuary at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), her husband's body is GH-6, Panchkula.

The boy, meanwhile, has been handed over to the woman and child welfare society in Sector 19. He would stay at their shelter home till the time the police find a legitimate custodian. Stone-faced, the boy did not speak to anyone, police said.